


Saving Flowers

by Mewster7



Category: Original Work
Genre: At least compared to the first chapter, Gen, Literally anything else would give away like half the book, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Siblings, Very confusing Prolouge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-02
Updated: 2017-05-05
Packaged: 2018-09-03 19:30:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 10,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8727403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mewster7/pseuds/Mewster7
Summary: While walking home from school, Hyacinth Blossom came across a pair of strangers with no memory. After hearing their story, she offered to let them live with her until it returned, with certain conditions. She expected it to be difficult. She did not expect it to completely ruin her life.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is a story I wrote for NaNoWriMo. It is almost entirely written, but the Epilouge is not, so that may take a while. Otherwise, I'll be posting once a week on Fridays.

The girl sat hunched over the notebook on her desk while glancing down at the phone in her hands every five seconds. The boy standing beside her continued to talk as though oblivious, pointing to the textbook nearby as he explained the various concepts written within its pages. Suddenly, the boy’s hand darted out like a snake and snatched the device from her hand.  
“Hey!” the girl cried, “That was mine!”  
“I’ll give it back to you, but only after you finish your homework, or at least show me that you are able to do it,” the boy lectured to her.  
“But what if I don’t want to be able to do it? What if it doesn’t matter to me at all?” the girl grumbled in response.  
“Then…” the boy seemed lost as he struggled for the words to use. As he thought as slow, sly smile crept up his face. “Then you’ll have to admit that I can do something and you can’t,” he taunted.  
The girl was not swayed, “So? You can do stuff that I can’t”  
“Yes, but none of the things that I know will benefit you in the future if you follow your current path. This is something that will help you if you know how to do it.”  
The girl’s eyes lit up. “You’re right! This will help my grade, so I can get into a good college with a high-level musical theater program.”  
“Exactly!” the boy stated, so happy with her uncharacteristically quick compliance that he did not notice the hand that was reaching behind his back, nor the one that was grabbing his wrist, until it was too late.


	2. Chapter I

On her way home from school, Hyacinth slipped through the parade of people around her, each one rushing to go to or from somewhere. As she turned a corner, she noticed that the pavement ahead of her was mysteriously vacant, and frowned, for this was a rare sight in such a bustling city. Nevertheless, she continued to walk, albeit much more cautiously, and only stopped when a pair of figures stumbled from the alleyway ahead and promptly collapsed.

Quickly, Hyacinth darted forward, managing to catch one of the people as it, he, she corrected when she saw him better, fell. The other person, a girl, managed to catch herself, although she did still appear to be slightly dizzy.

“Are you alright?” Hyacinth questioned at the mysterious pair.

“Yes,” the boy responded automatically, then corrected himself, “No... I don’t know,” the boy settled on, “I don’t remember anything. Not even my name.”

“What about you,” she wondered, turning to the girl, “Do you remember anything?”

“No, not at all.”

At this point, both had managed to to stand up, and Hyacinth took the opportunity to study their features. The boy was rather scrawny, with dark brown hair and a small, round face. His eyes were bright and green and oval, with a mouth that seemed to have a default position of a grin. The girl’s raven hair was short and wavy, and her face was short but sharp. Her eyes were a simple brown, but they seemed fiery, and her expression seemed to dare people to mess with her. Both of them had dirty, loose-fitting clothes and faces that were covered in dirt and grime.

The girl, noticing her staring narrowed her eyes. “Who are you?” she said is a suspicious voice.

Hyacinth, startled by the girl’s hostile response, took a step back, “H-hyacinth, but that’s beside the point. Do you really not remember anything? Even the smallest detail can help, and I want to help you.”

“I don’t know about her,” the boy pointed to his bristling companion, “but I can’t even remember my name. I feel like I know her, but I can’t recall how.”

“Well…” Hyacinth hesitated. She felt unsure about inviting random strangers into her house, and it could be very dangerous for Periwinkle, her younger sister, but these people needed help. Sighing, Hyacinth made her decision, “You can come over to my house until your memories return.”

“REALLY?!” the boy said, grinning, “Thank you!”

“How do I know I can trust you?” the girl responded.

“You don’t have to come if you don’t want to, but you can.”

The pair glanced at each other, and seemed to have a silent conversation before the boy turned to Hyacinth.  
“Sure!” the boy squeaked happily, quickly leading Hyacinth past the alley from which they had entered, and not allowing her to see unconscious form hidden within the darkness began to stir.

\--------------l-i-n-e---b-r-e-a-k------------

Shrouded in solitude, he watched as the three walked away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that was the first chapter! I decided to post it now because the Prolouge is short and doesn't really give a feel for most of the novel. Thank you for reading, and maybe post in the comments whether or not you think these new strangers are trustworthy.


	3. Chapter II

The door creaked open as Hyacinth stepped into her home and quickly slipped the key out of the doorknob and into her pocket. As the two strangers fell in behind her, she gestured toward the plush black couch in front of them. "You to can sit here. I need to go do something, but I'll be back in a moment." The girl opened her mouth, as if to protest, but the boy gave her a look, and they wordlessly sat down.

Hyacinth walked around them and down a hallway, where she reached a pale yellow door. Reaching forward, she turned the knob and gently pushed the door open. "Hey," she whispered softly to the room's occupant, "I'm home."

A pair of light blue eyes blinked back at her, and Periwinkle gave a soft smile. "How was your school, sis?"

Hyacinth allowed her shoulders to slump as she gave a smile and lay down on her back across the bed. "Well, Ron flipping bottles in math class, and one hit me on the head, so the teacher..." she trailed off, as she had noticed two faces peering through the doorway. Periwinkle followed where her eyes were, and stared in surprise.

"Who are you?" she wondered aloud, confused because of the strangers in her house.

"I ran into these two while walking home from school. They have no memory, so I agreed to take them in until they recovered."

"Oh. What are your names?" Periwinkle addressed the pair, who had decided to fully enter the room.

It was the boy who responded, "We can't remember."

"Well, you have to have names, or what are we supposed to call you. Make one up."

"How about... Henry Jekyll?" the boy considered, beaming. The girl standing behind him snorted loudly. "What?" the boy, now Henry, questioned, turning to her with a grin, "I like it."  
"Nothing," the girl muttered, smiling behind her hand, "If you're Henry, then I'll be... Emma!" She looked at Henry, and they smirked at each other, as if sharing an inside joke.

"Alright! Nice to meet you Henry, Emma. I'm Periwinkle," she nodded to the person whose name she was saying. She made to get out of bed, but Hyacinth noticed and immediately stopped her.

"The doctor said that you can't get out of bed unless there is an extreme emergency, and this isn't one of them."

"Sure it is, now let me greet them."

"No." 

"Fine," Periwinkle pouted.

"Now," Hyacinth began, turning to the visitors, "it's time to go back. I know you're all acquainted and such, and don't take this the wrong way, but I don't want you anywhere near Periwinkle ever again. Got it?"

"Umm..." they responded, surprised at the sudden change in attitude.

"Good. Now let's go."

"Wait..." Periwinkle pleaded, looking helpless behind her sister, "I wanted to spend more time with them," but they had already left.

Once they were gone, Hyacinth's eyes softened as she turned to look at the blue-eyed girl, "I know that it's hard to be stuck there, and I know that you're bored and lonely with just me here."

"I'm not-"

"Don't pretend you aren't. I know it's true, but I still don't know whether or not I can trust these people, and I don't want you to be hurt. I'm still not sure whether it was a good idea to bring them here in the first place, so please. Have patience."

Periwinkle considered her words for a few seconds before responding. "Okay. I'll try."

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    It was after Hyacinth had walked back to living room when the question arose. She had been working on her homework for about an hour, and Emma and Henry had each grabbed a book from the bookshelf to read, and the only sounds were the scribbling of pencil on paper and the giggles and gasps coming from the other two.

    Suddenly, Emma put down her book and, breaking what had been a somewhat peaceful atmosphere, "What about your parents?" Hyacinth was so surprised by the disturbance that she dropped her pencil, and it let out a clatter as it hit the table in front of her. 

    "What?" she said, so startled that she had barely processed the question.

    "What. About. Your. Parents," Emma repeated, impatient for an answer, "How do they feel about you bringing a couple of strangers into your home?"

    "They..." Hyacinth felt hesitant about revealing anything more to the people in front of her, but they were likely to find out eventually. "My dad is dead, and my mom... is hardly ever around, 'cause she's working to support the family," she rushed through the statement.

    "Oh." Emma seemed reluctant to make any further inquiries, and one glance at the look that Henry was giving her told Hyacinth why.

    At least he can tell when something's a touchy subject, Hyacinth thought to herself. She quickly picked up her pencil and continued to her work, pushing away all the unhappy thoughts and memories that threatened to build up after verbalizing such information.

    Riiiiiiiip! Hyacinth looked down guiltily when she noticed the startled expressions of her companions. Slowly, she reached out for a piece of tape, fixing the hole at the bottom of the paper where it had torn. Then she returned on her work, but only after making sure to move the hand that had been gripping the paper.

\------------l-i-n-e---b-r-e-a-k------------

    After apologising for the fact that they only had one guest room, as well as a long argument about who would be allowed it involving approximately twenty games of rock-paper-scissors, the visitors settled into their new living accommodations; Emma in the guest room, and Henry curled up under a blanket on the couch.

    When Hyacinth woke up for school the next day, she noticed that Henry was already awake and reading. When she stepped into the room, he glanced up at her and grinned, before letting out a cheerful greeting.

    "How long have you been up?" Hyacinth pondered, "It's seven am."

    "Oh, just since six. I decided to sleep in. I guess waking up in an alleyway with no memory can really take a lot out of you."

    "Six is sleeping in? What time do you usually wake up?"

    "Oh, around five-ish."

    Hyacinth stared at him in disbelief, but then something dawned on her. "Wait... if you don't have any memory, how do you know that you usually wake up at five."

    Henry froze for a second, like a deer caught in headlights, before saying, "I woke up at five, but I was really tired, so I went back to sleep. I'm just guessing." He said it naturally as if it was an automatic response. As if that moment of hesitation had not happened.

    A flicker of doubt burrowed its way into Hyacinth mind, questioning the truth within his statement. Although she tried to brush it aside, it refused to leave. Every once in awhile, as she went about her day, she would remember the incident, and ponder, if only for a moment, just how much she could trust these mysterious strangers.

\------------l-i-n-e---b-r-e-a-k------------

    In the darkness he sat, watching and waiting for the opportunity to strike.


	4. Chapter III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IMPORTANT  
> Because I'm going on a cruise next week, I am posting both Chapter III and Chapter IV today, and Chapter V is going to be a day or two late.

Hyacinth almost sprinted home once her school day was over. She felt like something was wrong, and she did not trust either of the strangers alone with her sister.

    When Hyacinth finally stumbled inside, winded from the trip, she immediately noticed a major flaw in what she saw before her. "Emma," she whispered, trying not to panic, "where's Henry?" Hyacinth knew she was overreacting, as Henry could simply be in the room where Emma stayed, or even in the bathroom, but she could not shake the feeling that something was terribly wrong.

    "Uh..." Emma stuttered, eyes wide, and Hyacinth knew that she was right. If Henry was in one of the aforementioned locations, Emma would not look like she had just been caught robbing a bank. Frantically, Hyacinth tore past her to get to Periwinkle's room, and would have stormed into the room if not for the strange sound she heard from inside. It sounded like speaking, but not entirely, and it was not in a language that she had ever heard before. The sound was smooth and flowing and soft, and Hyacinth herself found it oddly pleasant in spite of herself. Peering through the door, she found that the sound was coming from Henry, and it seemed to be coming from his mouth. What Hyacinth found most reassuring, both at the same time most alarming, was the fact that Periwinkle was staring, wide-eyed and beaming, the entire time.

    "What was that?" she inquired excitedly as it ended. "Can you do it again?"

    "That," Henry explained, "is called something called 'singing.' Where I come from, it's common."

    "Can you teach it to me?" Periwinkle asked hopefully.

    Henry smiled affectionately, "Of course. But first," he added his expression turning serious, "I must warn you of something. Here, what I am doing is illegal, and you can get in a lot of trouble if you are caught. That's why most people don't even know that it exists. Before I teach you how to do it you have to promise me not to mention it to anyone, or you could be in serious trouble."

    "Even Hyacinth?" Periwinkle wondered, confused.

    "Especially Hyacinth," Henry chuckled. "She might not hurt you if she finds out, but then I'll be in trouble. I don't think that she wants me standing within a five meter radius of you, and definitely not teaching you something that could get you in prison, no matter how harmless, or even beneficial, it may be."

    "But why? You're not bad."

    "I may not be bad, but she doesn't know that, and neither do you." Periwinkle opened her mouth to protest, but he cut her off, "I know I may seem nice, but that doesn't mean that I am. I just told you that I'll be teaching you something illegal, for goodness sake, and you don't even know why that is! For all you know, it could be a part of some dark ritual. Even setting that aside, I'm some random stranger who claimed to have amnesia and you sister decided to take in. Hyacinth was taking a risk in just allowing me to stay here, there's not way that she would let me talk to her little sister, especially when she was at school. You have no reason to trust me." Periwinkle giggled. "What?"

    She laughed again, "You are so strange. You come in, offering to show and teach me something amazing, and then almost immediately tell me that you can't be trusted! Who does that?"

    "Hey," Henry began, slipping into a less serious tone, "for all you know, I'm actually possessed, and that little outburst was the original, trustworthy soul inside of me crying for help." Periwinkle sniggered, but then snapped up, as if coming to a sudden realization.

    "Wait!" she cried. "You still haven't taught me how to sing yet."

    "Oh yeah," Henry remembered, but, after glancing at the clock on the wall, uttered, "We'll have to save that for tomorrow. Hyacinth's going to be home soon, and she will not be happy if she catches me in here." When Periwinkle looked ready to protest, he added, "If that happens, then she'll kick me out, and I can never teach you singing," and she quickly quieted.

    When Henry stood to leave, Hyacinth realized that she would be spotted. She knew that she should confront him, as she originally planned, but then she remembered how happy Periwinkle had looked as she spoke with Henry and listened to her sing. The way he acted, wary of even himself and warning Periwinkle that he could be untrustworthy, made his intentions seem much more innocent, and she knew that her sister had been to bored and lonely lately, especially while Hyacinth was at school. Deciding not to make her presence known, Hyacinth sipped back out the front door to fake having just arrived. If Emma noticed that she entered twice that afternoon, she did not bring it up.

\------------l-i-n-e---b-r-e-a-k------------

    Hyacinth almost sprinted home once her school day was over, but this time it was not because of worry, but because of excitement. The concept of 'singing' that Henry had brought up to Periwinkle intrigued her, and she wanted to learn it herself. It was for that exact reason that she had decidedly not informed her sister of the fact that she was to be released from school early that day.

    She slipped past Emma as she entered the house, and slinked through the hallway to Periwinkle's room, quiet as a mouse. She opened the door a crack and picked through the space, listening intently as Henry instructed her sister.

    "Now," he began, "I can't teach you how to make noise that is singing. Unfortunately, that's something that you will have to figure out how to do myself. Where I come from, people are readily exposed to singing, and just grow up doing it. It's less of a technique, and more like something that you just turn on and start doing when you want to, so let's just work on making the actual singing first. Try to make this noise." He then proceeded to let out a singular, pure, wordless note. Periwinkle tried to copy him, but ended up sounding more like a screeching cat. Henry winced, "Okay, how about this: try to focus more on the sound vibrating in your mouth. Picture it circling around in your mouth." Periwinkle tried again, much more successfully. Still, she seemed disappointed.

"It doesn't sound nearly as good as yours," she complained.

"Of course not," Henry sighed, "I've undergone years of musical training. You just learned what singing was yesterday."

"What does 'musical' mean?" Periwinkle asked.

Henry took a moment to consider his answer before responding, "It's is the adjective form of the word 'music,' which is a wide-ranging term for many various forms that are like what you have heard. It is also the broad subject that is illegal. Singing is one form of it, and is therefore also illegal, but I suppose the sound that birds make can also fall under that category. Most other forms involve instruments that you don't have access to, and are rather expensive."

    "...I don't get it," Periwinkle pouted.

    I don't either, Hyacinth thought to herself.

    "You'll catch on eventually," Henry consoled. "It's not too important."

    "Okay," Periwinkle responded, but she still looked concerned.

    "Alright," continued, glancing at the clock, "we have an hour to work on this before your sister gets home." After that statement, Hyacinth began to slink away and into her room to practice what she had heard.

\------------l-i-n-e---b-r-e-a-k------------

From afar, he watched and began to plan.


	5. Chapter IV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IMPORTANT  
> Because I'm going on a cruise next week, I am posting both Chapter III and Chapter IV today, and Chapter V is going to be a day or two late.

It was after that that Hyacinth began to settle into a kind of routine. Every day, she would race home from school as quickly as possible to watch Henry teach Periwinkle the elements of singing and music before faking an entrance into her house and going to her room to practice what she had learned. If Emma ever wondered why she would enter twice, she never brought it up, and Hyacinth stopped worrying that she would give her presence away. Many times, Hyacinth would miss part of a lesson, but she always managed to catch up. She learned many things, from how to sing without straining the voice to syllable names to the various notes and the spaces between them. Occasionally, she would wonder how Henry had learned what he did, especially if it was illegal, but she quickly dismissed her concerns. She was so caught up in the wonder of the newfound ability that the ordinary cautions building up in her mind had been tossed out of the window.

Another result of the extreme dedication to her craft was her sudden drop in grades, as even though she continued to do her homework, she barely tried, and she did not study at all. Her teachers, although slightly concerned, rarely came to her with their thoughts, and when they did she merely brushed them aside.

Other than the sheer fascination with the beauty of music and all it was, their was another factor that caused her to ignore all issues that may have cropped up, and that was her sister's health. Even as the rising obsession with it continued to distract Hyacinth, and therefore have a negative impact on her life, Periwinkle's condition had continued to improve. When the doctor had last visited, with Henry and Emma safely out of sight per Hyacinth's request, she had stated that it was suddenly much better, and even that there was a possibility of Periwinkle being able to leave bed, although for short periods of time, and go outside. This was especially curious, as it had begun to happen not long after Henry gave her singing lessons. This new home in the life of Hyacinth and her sister caused her to completely brush aside all lingering concerns with the music that Henry brought.

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The trips outside had begun slowly. At first, they had not even been that, and had only consisted of shakily stumbling around the house. After that, there had been slow trips outside with the supervision of Hyacinth alongside. Occasionally, she even would allow Henry or Emma to come along, although never without her present.

It was about a month after they began taking trips outside that Periwinkle began asking to go alone.

"No," Hyacinth asserted for what felt like the hundredth time.

"Why not?" Periwinkle whined.

"Because," Henry interjected, "you only just started going out recently, and we don't want you getting hurt. Eventually, you'll be able to, but until then, you just have to be content with going accompanied." Periwinkle pouted, but begrudgingly agreed, and the topic was dropped for the time being.

It was later that Henry addressed his concerns to Hyacinth. "I've started to get my memory back," he began, "but only in bits and pieces, and nothing that could be helpful. One thing I remember is that when I was younger, I used to have a cat, but because of the coyotes living nearby, we couldn't let him outside. He began to get restless, so we leash trained him and allowed him outside for measured periods of time on the leash every day. Although this satisfied him for a while, the little taste of freedom only made him want it more. Periwinkle reminds me of him."

Hyacinth frowned, "What happened to your cat?"

Henry replied guiltily, "Eventually, the wish to go outside became to much for him and he ran away. We never saw him again."

\------------l-i-n-e---b-r-e-a-k------------

It had been half a year since Henry and Emma had come to visit and a few months since Periwinkle could walk outside, and Hyacinth was becoming surprisingly comfortable with the strange duo. Long gone were the days when she would watch them from afar with the utmost suspicion, now she would lounge casually on the couch with them while discussing the books they were reading. She had become accustomed to waking up to Henry already making breakfast in the kitchen, she had long since given him permission to do so, and coming back from school to see Emma sprawled across the couch with a book in her hands, acting as if she did not have her own room. Henry had even been helping her with her homework, noticing the low-graded tests and homework in the recycling and outright forcing her to put actual effort into it again. Perhaps this made it less of a shock when Henry addressed her during his daily singing lessons to Periwinkle.

Hyacinth had been leaning through the door, watching as usual, when he simply looked up at her and said, "You can come in, you know. It can't be comfortable out there." She had been so startled that she nearly fell through the door on her walk to sit on Periwinkle's bed. "I've known that you were watching for a while now," he added, responding to her questioning look, "although I first began to suspect when I noticed your failing grades. There's only so much that you could be doing alone in your room alone." He paused for a second, "I feel like I just made an innuendo, but I'm not sure how," causing Periwinkle to giggle.

"Henry!" Hyacinth exclaimed, "not in front of the kid," and then Henry was laughing too. 

When they went back into the living room after a much more inclusive singing lesson, Emma eyed them suspiciously, "I feel like I'm being left out of something, and I don't like it."

"Hey," Henry defended, "for all you know, we could secretly be a couple making out. Do you really want to be included in that?"

"In Periwinkle's room? That's highly unlikely. Besides, you, Henry, are much to gay for that ever to happen. Spill."

After that, Emma also joined them, although she was on Henry's side of it: giving instructions instead of receiving them.

\------------l-i-n-e---b-r-e-a-k------------

Not long after, Hyacinth walked up to Henry to ask him for a favor. "Hey," she asked, "I promised to help out my friend after school today, so could you go pick up some groceries while I'm gone?" and handed him a list.

"Really?" Henry asked, gaping, "You're actually letting me outside? Alone?"

"Yeah, sure," she responded, pretending to act casual. "Here are some directions."

"O-okay," Henry still looked shocked, "I'd love to!" After shaking off the initial shock, he grinned and skipped away.

That event eventually lead to lots of times where Henry and Emma would do errands outside of the house, and sometimes leave just for the fun of it. Hyacinth trusted them, so she had no expectations of them causing trouble, and she certainly did not expect what was to come.

\------------l-i-n-e---b-r-e-a-k------------

Things may seem peaceful now, but just you wait, soon, everything will come crumbling down.


	6. Chapter V

It had seemed like another normal day as Hyacinth strolled back to her house after school. The sun was shining in a bright blue sky, birds sung short melodies in the trees, and all seemed right in the world. She had become blind to the chaos of the city, and as such did not notice the struggle of two figures that seemed all too familiar nearby.

The problem arose, in her eyes, when Hyacinth arrived home. She stepped inside and saw no issue with Emma and Henry's lack of presence on the couch, as she was likely to be in her room, and he with her or Periwinkle. Hyacinth walked casually to Periwinkle's room, calling out the usual, "I'm Home!" as she made her way there.

    "Have you seen Henry and Emma?" her sister immediately snapped as she opened the door. "They said they would be out for a few hours this morning, but they also said that they'd let me know when they came back, and I haven't seen them since.

    Hyacinth frowned, "I'll check Emma's room," but a small pit was forming in her stomach. As she walked inside she room, it only took a short glance around the room to know that they were not there. Trying to quell the rising panic in her chest, she frantically searched the rest of the house. It's fine, she thought, the trip probably just took longer than they thought it would. With that thought in mind, she ignored her growing worry and settled down to do her homework.

    Periwinkle and Hyacinth tried there best to go about their day, but it was difficult to ignore the gaping hole in their usual routine caused by the visitors' absence. When she went to bed, Hyacinth could not manage to sleep, and spent most of the night waiting for the sound of Emma and Henry entering the house before finally settling into a peaceful slumber.

    As soon as she woke up the next morning, Hyacinth dashed into Emma's room to see if she was there, and, when that was not the case, into the living room to see if she or Henry was there. She zipped inside, excited, only to slump against the wall in disappointment when the room was empty. She almost forgot to make herself breakfast that morning, as she was so used to having Henry make it instead.

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    After the disappearance of Emma and Henry, everything seemed to fall into a lull. Periwinkle and Hyacinth would still practice singing, but every song they would sing seemed melancholy, even the most upbeat ones. Hyacinth was rapidly falling behind in school without the motivation that she used to have, and Periwinkle's health, which had been getting better and better, began to decline at a surprising rate. In spite of this, the atmosphere in the house was so gloomy from the absence of their companions that she continued to beg to go outside, and Hyacinth had to tell her, "no," every time she asked.

One day when she was home from school, she walked inside and into Periwinkle's room like she usually did only to find that Periwinkle, was gone. "Periwinkle!" she called, and her voice resonated through the house. There was no response. Hyacinth rushed frantically from room to room, praying that she was still inside, but there was no one there. Not again, not again, she repeated in her head, and she rushed out of the house.

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    Hyacinth had been searching for her sister for an hour, but she could find no sign of her anywhere. It was now that Henry's story about his cat came back to her, and despair truly began to sink in.

    Then, as she was walking down a deserted street, she heard a sound, and realized at that moment that it was singing. Singing which sounded suspiciously like Periwinkle's. With a new ray of hope in her mind, she rushed towards the sound, only to hear it suddenly muffled, after being replaced by a short scream. Hyacinth slowed to a stop and stared, frozen at the sight before her. A man, most likely a government agent, if Henry's stories were to be believed, had grabbed her struggling sister, and was covering her mouth.

    Despite her weakened state due to her sickness, she managed to bite the man's hand, who let go of her long enough to cry, "Let me go!" before he grabbed her again. 

This spurred Hyacinth into action, and she raced forward to help her sister crying, "Periwinkle!" before a gunshot was heard and her vision blurred to black.

\------------l-i-n-e---b-r-e-a-k------------

It is time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter's a bit short, but I figured that, since so much happened so quickly, it would be best to stop it here.


	7. Chapter VI

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we finally meet this mysterious figure making vague appearances at the end of every chapter. We also may or may not make references to a couple of musicals here.

Here we finally meet this mysterious figure making vague appearances at the end of every chapter. We also may or may not make references to a couple of musicals here.

The cell was dark and unkempt, and the only company that he had was the girl sitting beside him on the bed. They had not been allowed to interact with any other inmates, for fear that they would teach them to sing as well. She began to hum, and he looked at her when he noticed.

"Is that 'Once Upon a Dream'?" he asked.

"Well, what else should I sing?" she responded defensively.

"I don't know, maybe 'Every Day a Little Death'?" he suggested.

"Well I figured that we should stick to the theme that we had. You know, the one that you suggested, mister 'Henry Jekyll.'"

"For your information, it's doctor, not mister, and that was just for names! What else was I going to do, if I let you choose, you'd be Olivia Kirkland, and Hades knows how many people you would end up killing."

"Hey, just because I would be going as Olivia doesn't mean that I would kill people," she retorted, but quickly gave in under his disbelieving look. "Fine. Let's just stay as Henry and Emma here then."

"Yay!" Henry exclaimed triumphantly. "I kind of like these names. We should use them more often."

"It would be nice to use out real names for once," Emma mumbled wistfully.

"We can't exactly do that. You know how dangerous it is. Even if we use the names of the bodies we're borrowing, we could still hurt them, and even ignoring the fact that I in no way want to be the reason that someone gets hurt, it is really hard to find a person who is not only mentally strong enough to learn what we know without going crazy, but also willing to have to share every personal detail with a complete stranger and give complete control to them."

"Yeah, yeah, and that's why we can't just leave whenever and let these bodies rot in prison," Emma paused. "Gods, we're giving exposition dialogue again."

Henry laughed, "Yeah, it really helps remind you that we're always in a book, no matter what universe we're in. Someone could be reading about us right now in some alternate dimension. It makes you wonder who's writing this."

Emma shuddered, "Don't remind me, it's already creepy enough to think that someone is reading about us, but writing? That's a whole new level of strange."

"So are our lives."

The two were interrupted, however, by a ripple in the air in front of them, as if it were water, which revealed a dark hole in its center. Out of this hole stepped a person, a boy, who looked about fourteen years old.

"Speaking of strange things happening in our lives," Emma whispered to Henry as she stared at the new arrival.

"Who are you?" Henry addressed him directly.

"It does not matter who I am," the boy stated, "The important part is that you realize the gravity of your actions. Even if the circumstances had not been so dire, I still would not give you my name when we had just met. Not my real one."

"Alright then, you can be..." Emma considered her options for a moment before a sneaky grin crept onto her face and she made her suggestion, "Edward Hyde," and at his expression added, "By the way, I'm Emma Jekyll, and this is my twin brother Henry."

The boy, now named Edward, sighed in exasperation, "Are you actually naming me after Mr. Hyde from the classic horror novella Jekyll and Hyde? Did you really name yourselves after its protagonist?"

"More the musical, because Emma isn't present in the book, but yes, yes we are." Henry corrected. "Hey, at least this shows that we're well-read!" he defended as Edward pushed back his messy almond hair and rubbed his temples in annoyance.

"That is not why I came here," Edward stated, pulling the topic of conversation back to what he intended and staring at them with tired, sapphire eyes, "I came here to tell you about the repercussions of your actions."

Emma asked, "What do you-"

"Are you alright?" Henry interrupted her, concerned, "You look exhausted."

"Don't change the subject," Edward growled, but Henry butt in again.

"I'm now changing the subject. Whatever you're here for can wait. As a person who specializes in healing and protection, the health of the people around me is always my primary concern, even if they are only here to reprimand me on some idiotic action as you, apparently, are."

"I'm fine," Edward deflected.

"You are not fine! You are thin and your clothes are crumpled and have bags under your eyes and you look like you haven't slept in days. Do not say that you are fine," Henry lectured.

Edward glared at him, "My sleeping schedule does not concern you, and the matter that I come to you with is much more pressing. You need to undo all of the changes that you have made to this world."

"Why? Do you want Periwinkle to die like she does in the book?" Emma questioned, " I know we're stuck here because we don't want to abandon these bodies, but we just need the wait until Hyacinth causes people to incite a revolution and the people currently in prison are released."

"I would be quite difficult for her to do so, considering the fact that she is dead."

The twins turned to stare at him, "What?" they said at the same time.

"After you two disappeared, Periwinkle's health began to decline again, and because she was unable to go on walks, she ran away when Hyacinth was at school. Unfortunately, she began unconsciously singing while she was out and was soon captured and imprisoned. Because Periwinkle had not been there when she came home, Hyacinth searched for her and discovered her being captured. When she attempted to save her, she was shot and killed," Edward explained. The two gaped at him for several seconds before Emma finally spoke up.

"I don't believe you," she declared. "There's no way. Henry healed Periwinkle, so that's not possible."  
Henry looked less disbelieving, "Not necessarily. I had to heal her in small increments so that I didn't show any fatigue or other physical repercussions that come from healing people. It's completely possible that I didn't manage to heal her enough before we were discovered."

"But can't you use life energy from other living creatures too?" Emma asked.

"Not without touching them, and if I had used Hyacinth I would definitely be noticed, plus the flowers in the room would wilt if I took any amount of energy that could actually make a difference. I can only use something that small when dealing with cuts and bruises, not terminal illnesses," Henry corrected. He addressed then Edward, who had been completely ignored by the siblings, "Hey, how do you know all of this anyway?"

"My ability causes me to know what would otherwise be a mystery," he answered.

"English please," Emma urged.  
Henry looked at her, "You have read Les Miserables, but you're having trouble understanding that?"

"Shh!" she whispered, "He doesn't need to know that."

"You are ridiculous," Henry told her. "Why are you pretending to not understand something?"

"I'm just giving him a hard time," Emma replied in a hushed voice, "What's the big deal."

Edward cleared his throat to interrupt the exchange, "Do you speak with each other as if others are not around often, or am I a particular case?"

"Sorry," Henry apologized, "It's a twin thing."

"Are your abilities equally synchronized?" Edward questioned, still irritated, if not slightly amused, about how the other two had ignored him.

"Sort of," Henry jumped to respond before Emma could speak, earning himself a dirty look. "We have the same abilities, but we have completely different strengths. How did you know we had abilities outside of our dimensional travels and our biological parents aren't both normal humans, and one of them just ended up in another universe?"

"Other than the fact that that is extremely uncommon among us dimension travelers, as ordinary people rarely find themselves traversing planes of reality and conceiving a child with a person from a different universe, you spoke earlier of you healing abilities," Edward explained.

"Oh yeah..." Henry remembered, and Edward rolled his eyes at his selective memory. "Anyway, Emma and I have the same ability, where what we sing takes shape in the world one way or another, but we specialize in different areas due to our differing personalities. Emma's spells are more offensive- fire and earthquakes and other dramatic numbers- while I specialise more in healing and protection spells. Conversely, we are both equally capable at flying spells, as we both tend to be dreamers. How does your ability work?" At Edward's hesitant look, he added, "Hey, we told you about ours!" ignoring Emma's mumble about how she had not said anything, and he had been the only one to tell about both of their abilities.

Edward sighed, "My ability involves making a sort of pocket dimension of my own, through which I am able to enter the any point within the life of any person within a radius of one hundred meters. It was through this that I visited you today, and it is also the way in which we will remedy the issues that you have brought to this world."

Emma groaned, "I'd hoped that we could distract you from that. I don't want Periwinkle to die."

"But you'd be fine with Hyacinth's death?" Edward responded skeptically.

"I'm still not sure that you're telling the truth," Emma replied.

"Do you not believe your brother's judgement?" Edward asked, "He trusts me."

"My brother trusts everyone until they give him an explicit reason not to. He can be a bit of an idiot."

"Gee, thanks," Henry deadpanned.

"Just being honest," Emma sang.

"As interesting as I find it to listen to the two of you bicker," Edward interjected before Henry could respond, "we have much more important matters to attend to. Namely, fixing the mistakes that you have created with your carelessness."

"We're not gonna be able to wriggle out of this, are we?" Emma grumbled.

"'Going to'" Edward corrected.

"What?" Emma wondered, confused.

"'Gonna' is not a word. The term would be 'going to,' and no, you will not be able to to stop this," he explained.

"Fine," Emma mumbled, "but I'm gonna complain the entire time," ignoring the angry glare that Edward shot her at her intentional use of a word that she had just been corrected for. After a few seconds, he huffed and turned around. He raised his head and tapped the air in front of him. Gaping, the twins watched as ripples began to emit from the spot that he had tapped, leaving a hole in the air like when he had first appeared.

"Come on," he urged, and he stepped inside the hole, leaving the bewildered siblings to follow.

In case anyone was wondering, 'Once Upon a Dream' is from "Jekyll and Hyde" and 'Everyday a Little Death' is from the "Count of Monte Cristo" (the musicals, not the books.) I probably made some other reference to something that I can't remember, and some of the explanations here can be a bit confusing, so if you have any questions, just comment on the paragraph and I'll reply with what it is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case anyone was wondering, 'Once Upon a Dream' is from "Jekyll and Hyde" and 'Everyday a Little Death' is from the "Count of Monte Cristo" (the musicals, not the books.) I probably made some other reference to something that I can't remember, and some of the explanations here can be a bit confusing, so if you have any questions, just ask in a comment and I'll reply with what it is.


	8. Chapter VII

"Woah," Henry whispered as they slipped inside the pocket dimension. They seemed to be walking on nothing, surrounded by a dark abyss of nothingness. Surrounded them were doors of every way, shape, and form, with names on them like 'bunk bed #53' 'food plate #692.'

"Yeah," Emma whispered, equally enchanted, before something seemed to dawn on her. "Wait!" she exclaimed, and whipped around, only to see the bodies they had been inhabiting still inside the prison cell through the rapidly closing hole in the air. "We can't just leave them!" she cried to Edward.

"If we stop ourselves from changing the story, they won't even be there anymore," Henry told his sister.

"Oh right..." she realized, causing Henry to giggle and Edward to roll his eyes.

"They sooner we change this the sooner they'll be back where they were supposed to be before you interfered," Edward added, "Let's go." He continued to walk and told them, "Tell me when you see a door with one of your actual names."

"Here!" Henry cried, pointing to a lime green door with gold lettering.   
Immediately, Edward stepped forward and opened it, gesturing for the other two to follow him as he walked into what seemed like more of the same space.

It was only when they walked through the space where the door had been when it was closed that they noticed their surroundings change. The background was the same, but instead of doors, there were images of scenes of Henry's life from his perspective. Here, Edward continued to walk until he came to a stop at a scene of the twins, still in their human bodies, slipping into an alleyway where a man was huddled, singing a wordless song.

"Previously, you interfered by making yourselves the influences that taught Hyacinth what singing was, instead of her coming across it by hearing this man singing in an alleyway," Edward explained. "We need to stop you from knocking him unconscious and taking his place." The three entered what seemed to be a two-dimensional image, only to see what they had previously viewed like a video. The alley was dirty, and the man huddled there seemed not to notice them. Edward made a gesture for them to follow, and they did, out of the alley and onto the street to see themselves from the past, still in their borrowed bodies, walking towards it. They came to a stop, however, at the sight of them.

"Hey!" Henry greeted cheerfully, although he tried to keep his voice hushed to avoid drawing the attention of the man nearby, "I'm you. From the future."

"Wha...?" past Emma muttered, confused, before Henry jumped in.

"Look, I know you really, really, really don't want Periwinkle to die, but if you try to stop her from dying you're just going to end up having Hyacinth die instead, so could you maybe not do this, give those people back their bodies, and go home? Pretty pretty please?" Past Emma opened her mouth as if to speak, but Henry added, "And if we're going to continue this discussion, can we go somewhere where we don't have to whisper the whole time."

"Okay!" past Henry obliged, and practically dragged his sister away until the group finally came across a vacant park that they could converse in. "Let's talk here! First order of business," he turned to Edward, "you. I don't know who you are, but you look like you haven't slept in days! Go over there and sleep, or a will make you."

"See!" the more recent Henry exclaimed, "I'm not the only one concerned with your health. Go sleep."

"The 'other person' concerned with my health is simply you, but from the past," Edward deadpanned.

"I don't want to hear it," Henry stated, "Sleep!"

Edward sighed, "What about a compromise? I'll go sleep after we have this sorted out. 

"Fine, but I will take you up on that."

"Good. Now onto more important matters," Edward told them, ignoring the simultaneous cries of the Henrys that his health was plenty important. "I am another one of you dimension travelers, and you may call me Edward, as your counterparts so graciously dubbed me. We came here to inform you that your mission to save Periwinkle will ultimately result in her imprisonment and the death of her sister, so you should not carry through with it."

"Oh. Okay," Henry complied quickly. "I have a question though, if we do this, will those guys disappear? How does that work?"

"I am unsure," Edward answered. "However, my best guess is that, due to what it is that we are, life will have the same effects as if this had not occurred, but they will continue to retain the memories of this event, although an ordinary human would not."

"Why are we going along with this?" past Emma asked, earning an exclamation of agreement from her future counterpart.

"Why not?" Henry responded. "It makes sense."

"That is a terrible reason," past Emma told him.

"Yeah, well, too bad. You need to go back to your homework anyway," past Henry responded.

"Dangit!" Emma groaned, "I'd hoped that you'd forgotten about that."

"Nope," Henry asserted gleefully, "Now, you guys go change everything, and you," he turned to Edward, "Are going to visit me when this is all over so I can force to to actually sleep. Don't deny that you can, I know that you'll be able to, and to ensure that you don't forget, you are going to give me your phone number right now, and I'm going to call to make sure it's the right one, don't worry I cast a spell so that this works in every dimension where wi-fi exists and can cross into others. If you do not come by 9:00pm my time, I am going to call you and pester you about it until you do, because you need to sleep."

Edward gaped at him, "Do you not have anything better to do that is not obsessing about my health. Perhaps you could call your girlfriend instead."

"Nope!" Henry grinned, "I am completely single, and having a girlfriend would be rather difficult considering the fact that I am extremely gay. Like, blatantly so. Anyway, there aren't many things more important than making sure that my friends are healthy."

"Friend..." Edward repeated, confused.

"Yep! There are so few of us dimension travelers that I make it my job to befriend every one I meet! Well, except for Ivy, who claims to not have any friends every time I see her, and that we're simply acquaintances because Emma keeps making business deals with her, even though I keep telling my sister that she should not be killing anyone, and hiring an assassin to do it instead isn't much better. Still, that's the only exception, and I will not allow you to become a second one. We are now friends, which means that you need to stay healthy."

"Alright," Edward sighed, trying to hide his smile, "I do not want to cause an argument, so I will agree to be your friend."

"Great!" Henry exclaimed, "Now you guys can go change the past, and I will see you then!"

So, here we are at the end of the book. All that's left is an Epilogue, with a questionable update date due to its length, and this will be over. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it; I really fell in love with some of these characters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, here we are at the end of the book. All that's left is an Epilogue, with a questionable update date due to its length, and this will be over. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it; I really fell in love with some of these characters.


	9. Epilogue

The air was hot and muggy. At their feet, pools of lava bubbled dangerously, waiting for someone to misstep and end up with a searing foot. Above, the sky was clouded with ash and soot, and whatever remnants of the darkened sky were covered by the dark figures soaring above. All around, the people could feel themselves slowly sink into despair at the apparent futility of their mission, but still they fought on.  
Alternatively, the beings they were fighting were in their element; this battle was happening on their home turf, and were- quite literally- fighting tooth and claw. The hot air and surrounding atmosphere which the humans found so troubling only made them stronger. Even so, they fought brutally, and there was no shortage of casualties on both sides.  
As the fighting raged on, a song began to permeate through the air, and the earth began to shake. Fires spouted in the few areas of ground where it was not already dangerous to walk, and the humans began to fall at an increasing rate. Amidst the battles, a winged girl, fought alongside the great dragons against whom the rest of her kind was fighting, and this was not the only strange appearance in this war.  
At the base of the dormant volcano, around which this was taking place, there was a hidden door, leading into the castle of the dragons. Here, a boy, similarly winged like the girl, would take those who were mortally wounded, no matter if they were human or dragon. Once they were there he would place one hand on the rocky ground, another on the hurt fighter, and sing a song in a language unknown to humans and dragons alike. His eyes would close, and a golden light would swirl around the patient and heal their most grievous wounds, before they fell into a deep sleep. Then, the boy would launch into the sky with his feathery wings, scanning the scene bellow for his next patient.  
As the fighting raged on, a human separated from the ground and sprinted directly to the entrance of the castle, dodging the slumbering soldiers- both human and dragon alike- that crossed her path. The boy, still searching for another to heal, did not notice her slip into the concealed castle.  
The inside of the volcano was scorching, and the woman’s sweating only intensified under her suffocating armor. Peering into every nook and cranny in the cavernous room, her eyes finally came to a rest on the girl ahead. She appeared to be only sixteen, although such was not the case. She wore a flowing red dress which stood out brilliantly against her dark skin, and ruby red gemstones decorated the even darker hair arranged meticulously on her head.  
The woman came face to face with her, stated, “Foolish queen, standing there pretending to be human, when you a really just another monster. You only makes it easier for me to do what I came here for.”  
“And what might that be?” the dragon queen questioned calmly.  
“To slaughter you, and bring an end to the tyrannical reign of the dragons,” the woman declared. Privately, she thought, Maybe, if I am the one to do this, the other soldiers will take me seriously, in spite of my status as a woman.  
“Hmm,” the queen considered, amused, “Our ‘tyrannical reign?’ How can our reign be tyrannical when we do not even reign? We are not rulers of these lands, nor do we pretend to be. We are simply another one of the species which share this world. If you felt us tyrannical, why did you not raise your concerns previously, before attempting genocide? In fact, I did not know that you humans were even aware of, our existence up to this point. I do not understand you concerns.”  
“Just because we were only recently learned of the cause does not we that we did not still take issue with the effect. Did you not think that we did not notice the disappearance of the creatures around us?” the woman cried, becoming increasingly angrier, “Did you think that, just because they were not our own livestock, we would not notice a creature roaming free one day and completely gone the next because you took its life away?”  
The more infuriated the woman became, the more calm the queen became, “I do not understand you humans. You scream and shout at us for daring to kill another creature for food, yet you yourselves specifically breed them for the same purpose, some in deplorable conditions. If anything, you humans are less entitled to do such a thing, as you are omnivorous, and can live without doing so, while us dragons are carnivorous, and must do it in order to simply survive. You continue to kill unnecessarily, yet chide us for doing the same because we have to. Even still, we left you to your business, while you storm our home and attempt to kill off our entire species. You are such hypocrites, yet you continue to act as if we were the true evil. We, who are simply living peacefully, are the villains, while you are the heroes. The most amusing element of all is how you are all completely ignorant to it, believing most creatures who are not human to be beneath you, to be either used as food or kept in your homes to help and amuse you, while the remainder are evil and must be eliminated at all costs. Truly, you are conceited.”  
“Do not attempt to trick me with your silver tongue,” the woman glared, although she was clearly unsettled by the dragon queen’s words, “I have had enough. Die, monster!” She swung her sword, aiming for a clean killing blow to the head, only to hit an invisible barrier a foot away from the target. She heard a laugh, and spun around to see the boy that had been healing the soldiers on the battlefield.  
“Did you really think that I would simply leave the queen unprotected?” he asked. She did not listen, and angrily charged him with her sword, only to be met with a similar force. “I must admit these are not my best, as I have already used up much of my energy healing the wounded, but they should be sufficient.”  
“Who are you?” the woman cried. “Why are you helping these devil creatures?”  
“I am not helping either of you, I am just trying to lower the number of casualties,” he responded.  
“You say that you have no loyalties, but the goal of our side is to kill this creature, therefore you are against us,” the woman growled.  
The boy sighed, “That is why I am not assisting you. As the queen stated, your objective is the complete destruction of a species that has done you no harm previously. How are you able to justify that?”  
“You are betraying your people! How can you justify that?” the woman retorted.  
“I am healing the humans as much as I am healing the dragons,” the boy explained, “and I am betraying no one. We may be the same species, but that is where our similarities end. I am as much related to them as I am related to the dragons who they fight. I still care for you, but as I care for everyone, not as I care for my kin.”  
“Where do you hail from then, if you have no relation to us?”  
The boy gave a secretive smile, “That is not something I can tell you. Now, if you excuse me, I must depart.” He made his way to the entrance of the volcano, but before leaving he turned around and said softly, “I know you wish to prove yourself, but this is not the way. If you can not prove yourself without committing a gruesome murder, than perhaps these people are not ones worth proving anything to,” before turning away and exiting the castle. The woman was so dumbfounded by his last words that she did not think to grab his attention until he had already left.

* * *

 

Outside, the battle raged on and the winged girl fluttered to land beside the boy.  
“Did you do it?” she muttered to him quietly.  
“Yeah,” he whispered back, “We should get going. The longer we stay here, the more likely we are to be found out.”  
“Alright,” the girl responded, and then snorted, “We sound like a pair of escaped criminals. Maybe, we should talk about this less suspiciously.” The boy opened his mouth as if to respond, but was interrupted by shout.  
“What,” the call sounded above the raging battle, “Are you two doing here? You know that you are not supposed to be interfering, and yet still you continue. I understand your wish to save lives, but you have seen the repercussions that it causes. Why do you continue to ignore the obvious and-” he was interrupted by the boy tackling him to the ground in order to avoid a blast of fire that was dangerously close to where he had been previously.  
Shakily, the winged boy pulled the other to his feet before whispering harshly, “What we you THINKING? You came here to lecture us about recklessness, but you have no regard for your own health and safety, and decide to pop in right in the middle of a cross-species battle! If I hadn’t noticed the danger, you would be DEAD right now!” By the end of his rant the boy was screaming, and nearby figures we beginning to notice.  
“Could we continue this discussion somewhere else?” the other boy inquired, “We seem to be drawing the attention of those around us, and I do not want to alter this timeline any further.”  
“Fine, but this isn’t over,” come on, lets go. He and the girl followed as the boy tapped the air and caused a ripple, as if it were water. At the center grew a dark space of nothing, and all three of the unusual humans stepped through.


End file.
